The present invention relates to an information processing system having two or more information processing units connected through a data transmission means such as a communication line, one unit functioning as a server and another unit functioning as a client, and more particularly to a method for managing resources in a case where for processing a first resource such as document data requested to a server by a client, a second resource such as private character fonts is required and the information processing system for implementing the managing method.
As an example of the information processing system having two or more information processing units connected through a data transmission means such as a communication line, one unit functions as a server for doing printing and another unit function as a client for requesting the server unit to do printing.
In such a system, when the document data created by a client is sent to the server for printing the document, the document may include any private character or external character (also called user's defined character). In this case, it is considered that the client has a private character font corresponding to the private character code included in the document data to be printed, while the server does not have it. When, therefore, the client requests the server to print the document, the server needs the document data to be printed and the additional data such as the private character font concerning the document data. The additional data is sent from the client to the server, for example, as disclosed JP-A-63-288318.
Consider an information processing system in which a plurality of clients use one server. Each time one client is changed to another, the private character fonts sent from the previous client are deleted in the server and the new private character fonts are required to be down-loaded from a new client to the server.
To meet the requirement, a storage area for each client is provided in the server so that the private character fonts for each client may be stored in the corresponding storage area. This arrangement makes it possible to avoid down-loading the private character fonts each time a client is changed to a new one, which is disclosed in Ikenoue U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,047,957 and 5,068,807.
This technical arrangement disadvantageously loads the server too much, because the server needs to store the private character fonts for each client. Hence, this is not feasible. Moreover, if the same client may use the private characters respectively corresponding to the documents, the storage area for the client is required to be rewritten.
As another technique, it is considered that the server holds the private character fonts commonly to all the possible clients and each client sends the font to the server if the server does not hold but needs the font to print the document. That is, when the document including one or more private characters is transferred between the information processing units, it is determined whether or not the communication is executable between these units. If yes, the character codes of the document are transferred and if one or more character codes include one or more private character codes, the corresponding private character fonts are also transferred together with the character codes. The technique related to this is disclosed in JP-A-58-141058.
The foregoing conventional technique is arranged so that the information processing unit on the sending side may determine whether or not each character code indicates a private character when the character codes and the private character fonts are transferred from the sending unit to the receiving unit. This technique, therefore, consumes long time when transferring the character codes. For example, if the information processing unit on the receiving side prints the document, it is determined whether or not each character code included in the document data indicates a private character on the receiving side, again. It means that the determining process has to be executed twice. This wastes too long time in processing.
On the other hand, in a case where the second resource such as one or more private character fonts is needed for processing the first resource such as document data to be printed as requested to a server by a client, the second resource is not necessarily held in the requesting client. Another client may often hold the second resource. The conventional information processing system, however, is arranged on the assumption that the document data to be printed and the private character fonts needed for printing the document are held in one client. If a user changes one client to another for printing the corresponding document, the situation may take place wherein the private character fonts corresponding to the private character codes included in the document data are not held in the client sending the document data. In this case, the server disables to process the request of printing the document. The conventional system, therefore, requires just one client to create the unity document. This restricts the promotion of the system, so that the user has difficulty in freely creating the data such as a document without having to be conscious of the attributes of the clients.